Category Archives: Starting Out

Jeff, Starting Out

Contemplating Careers: Medical School or Ecology?

Hello! I am Jeff Wood, and I am a fourth year ecology, behavior, and evolution major at UCLA. My main goal for my trip to Nicaragua is very simple.  I want to be able to go to nature to be able to explore nature and fulfill my lifelong dream of traveling to a rainforest. I grew up watching people such as Steve Irwin and Jeff Corwin on the television and always wanted to do what hey do, but having grown up in Southern California, I never had the opportunity to do so. I did take the occasional trip to national parks such as Yellowstone and Yosemite, but I never really was able to experience nature to the level that I wanted to. While in Nicaragua, I hope that I will be able to have some moments where I will just be able to sit by myself and just contemplate about life. I know this may sound a bit cliché, but it is something that I have always wanted to do. I have also never been out of the country before, so this will also be a good opportunity for me to get some much needed traveling experience. My mom is terrified of me going, but if I accomplish this goal and the two others that I am going to describe, I think that she will think that this whole experience will have been worthwhile. However, if I get malaria or something, she will definitely never forgive me, but my stories about having the disease will still be pretty cool!

A second goal that I have been thinking of is that I want to be able to conduct research on something that I am very interested in. There are so many different kinds of plants and animals that live in the rainforest, so I am bound to find something that I am passionate about studying. I do not have a very clear idea of exactly what I want to do research on while I am in Nicaragua, but from what I have researched on my own and learned in classes, I am leaning towards something with hummingbirds. At my family home in Chino Hills, California, my family has recently installed hummingbird feeders that attract many individuals daily. My family and I derive great joy from watching the birds’ interactions, which are mostly aggressive. There are many different species of hummingbirds in Nicaragua, so I am hoping that I will be able to view enough to be able to get some good data.

This trip will also allow me to have a clearer idea of what I want to do with my career. I am currently a premed, and since it is my fourth year I will be applying to medical school very soon. The thing is, my childhood passion for ecology has not diminished at all. This has left me with a bit of a dilemma. There are so many routes that I will be able to take in my career for both of these routes, but the time to officially decide what I am going to do is rapidly approaching. I hope to use this quarter as a way to help me make this extremely important decision. While my parents are set on me becoming a physician, I really want to explore all of my options while I still have the opportunity to do so. The future is very important to me, and I want to do something I know I will enjoy.

Emily, Starting Out

In Search of a Sloth

Hi All! My name is Emily, and I am a 3rd year Bio major at UCLA. This quarter I am embarking on a new journey: traveling and conducting research through the rainforests of Nicaragua. I feel tremendously lucky to have this opportunity and I want to invite you all to also come on this journey with me! In this blog, you will get it all: posts about my scientific findings, photos of all the animals and plants I encounter, my personal thoughts, any and every random fact I learn, and an inside scoop of what really happens during the trip.

Before I jump on the plane and then go on a 3 hour bus ride followed by a 4 hour ride down the river to finally reach Refugio Bartola, it’ll be a good idea to begin with my goals for this trip.

Growing up in Ecuador, family trips to the Amazon was something I always looked forward to. After many years, I’m finally able to go back into the rainforest! I’ve never been to Nicaragua so one of my personal goals would be to speak to the locals and learn a little more about my surroundings.

On a different note, I am looking forward to exploring as much of Refugio Bartola as possible. I want to walk every trail, paddle down the river, and see as much of the biodiversity this amazing place has to offer. I’m crossing my fingers that I will run into a sloth! I hope I will get the chance to admire this slow-moving animal in action and get a couple of really good pictures. Although this is aiming a little high since there haven’t been many sloth sightings in the recent years, I hope luck will be on my side.

I’ve never traveled with a group of individuals who are just as passionate about the wild as me so as you can imagine, I am ecstatic that 15 other people will be joining me on this journey! This leads me to my next goal: to learn at least 1 thing from each and every single one of my peers and at least return from this trip with 15 new facts. Let me correct myself…at least 19 new facts since I know I will most definitely learn something new from my two professors, Greg and Debra, and my two TA’s, Adrea and Rachel.

I truly hope you enjoy seeing the world the way I see it for these next 10 weeks!

Juan, Starting Out

Aspiring field biologist

My name is Juan Ceja and I am a 5th year Biology Major, with a double minor in Spanish and Conservation Biology. I actually only returned for my 5th year of undergraduate studies at UCLA so that I could participate in this Field Biology Quarter (FBQ). I am extremely interested in Behavior and Conservation, and it is for that reason that I am more and more excited every day be a part of such a life changing experience.

Participating in this Winter 2015 FBQ is something that I have been looking forward to since I found out I had been chosen to participate. During my Spring Quarter last year, I received the news that I was one of the lucky 15 students that would be traveling to Refugio Bartola, Nicaragua to study in a tropical rainforest. This was the best possible news at that time.

During this course, I hope to obtain valuable life experiences that will help me decide on the career that I will pursue after this final quarter of undergraduate study. I currently fantasize of being a field biologist, but I have not had any true field experience and do not know if all of my thoughts are just that, fantasy. This course will provide the perfect opportunity to learn what field research is all about and it will provide great insight to the ways field research is performed. One of my goals is to learn as much as possible from the two distinguished professors and the two talented teaching assistants that will be mentoring us through this entire experience.

My specific goal during the FBQ, aside from gaining as much experience as possible, is to carry out two successful research projects. One project will focus on behavior biology and the other on conservation biology. Being able to develop an experiment and properly execute it will definitely boost my self confidence in my abilities to pursue a career as a field biologist. I want to do all of this while creating experiences and establishing friendships that I will be able to carry with me for the rest of my life. Of course I also want to enjoy the trip and hopefully get to see a Capuchin!

Starting Out, Vivien

Ready for the Rainforest

Hello everyone. My name is Vivien and I am a third year biology student at UCLA. Since my freshman year at UCLA I have been looking forward to applying for the Field Biology Quarter, and I became even more excited when I found out that the study site was a tropical rainforest in Nicaragua. Upon receiving my interview and then finding out that I was chosen to be a part of this experience, I have been counting downs the months, weeks, and now approaching days until the trip. Even though the actual departure date is not until January 27, my bright orange hiking backpack has been packed since Christmas with everything I need for this expedition, including a insect-repelling bandana and my friend’s Go Pro camera, which I have promised to return in one piece.

I hope that with this trip I will be able to find my true passion. To me it’s not just a resume booster or another activity to list on an application. It is a step towards finding out what I want to do for the rest of my life, and therefore truly finding myself. Who knows, maybe studying dung beetles in the Rainforest is the exact place to find such a revelation. So, with this blog, my promise to you is that I will record every thought, feeling, and groundbreaking scientific discovery I make during this trip. Sometimes memories are more special when you get to share them with someone, and this way, it will be as if you were right beside me experiencing the same journey. Stay tuned!